I've been a financial journalist for more than 20 years: I've written for most of the national newspapers in the UK (plus a host of magazines and web sites) on topics related to business, economics, finance, property, investment, personal finance and entrepreneurship.
I've held staff jobs at newspapers including The Observer, the Daily and Sunday Express and, most recently, The Independent, where I spent several years as Business Editor managing the newspaper’s business coverage.
Two years ago, I went freelance in order to launch my own editorial consultancy, which provides content in three specialist areas: small business/entrepreneurship, investment/personal finance, and thought leadership.
I continue to write for a number of newspapers, including The Independent, where I have a weekly column on topics relating to small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as magazines, web sites and a growing number of corporate clients.

Five UK Tech Clusters That Could Put London To Shame

Britons living and working outside London understandably get frustrated with the disproportionate amount of attention lavished on the capital city by everyone from journalists to policymakers (most of whom, of course, are based there). Take the London Technology Week, an initiative that has in recent days been seeking to promote the brightest lights of the city’s tech sector. “London’s first ever technology week will showcase London’s role as the digital capital of Europe”, those behind the project promise.

Well, let’s not be churlish – London is indeed home to many exciting tech start-ups and maturing businesses, as well as entrepreneurial and innovative people who have much to offer. Still, this community is not exactly short of support – not least from the UK Government, which is doing its best to hype the Silicon Roundabout development in East London (home to Google’s new campus, among others) in the hope of being able to claim it as a policy success.

Meanwhile, the many vibrant tech hubs outside of London aren’t getting much of a look-in, despite a feeling in some quarters that London isn’t even the digital capital of Britain, let alone Europe. Take Cambridge, for example, which has a much longer-standing tech sector than London. It’s produced the likes of Autonomy and ARM Holdings, two world-class technology businesses. London has not yet come close to matching either of these successes.

In Bristol, home to another thriving community of technology companies, Irfon Watkins, the chief executive of Coull, the digital advertising business that now has offices all around the world, says that the focus on London is nonsensical. For one thing, he argues, the idea that Britain needs to think about what its companies can achieve globally, rather than get hung up on their domestic location. For another, he suggests, in an age of unparalleled connectivity, it’s illogical for tech businesses to huddle together, paying exorbitant rates to be round the corner from one another.

“I get asked all the time why we didn’t base Coull, the company I’m looking to build into Bristol’s first billion dollar tech business, in London – or Silicon Roundabout to be more specific,” Watkins says. “People seem incredulous that anyone could run a successful start-up anywhere other than our capital, or even within one of the many other micro hubs that are springing up around the country.”

So where else in Britain is hot right now for technology companies? Well, as Watkins points out, the idea of a cluster may be considered outdated and unnecessary. Nevertheless, across the UK, exciting tech businesses are coming together to build local industries that genuinely rival what the capital has to offer. Here’s just five of them.

Silicon Fen Around 1,400 technology companies in Cambridge employ more than 53,000 people and turn over more than £13 billion a year. The City’s university is a major player in the local technology scene, but the private sector dominates. The town’s science park in Northern Cambridge, set up in 1970, has been a particular catalyst for development, and similar developments have now popped up elsewhere in the community.

Oxford Oxford and the surrounding area have also capitalised on academia and the university’s global reputation. More than 3,000 high-tech businesses are based in the county, collectively employing around 45,000 people. Like Cambridge, Oxford has launched its own science park, which is currently home to more than 60 businesses.

Silicon Glen Scotland’s technology cluster, located (more or less) in the triangle formed by Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh, has been hit by the withdrawal of large employers such as Motorola and NEC, but still consists of several hundred businesses employing tens of thousands of workers. It is home, for example, to Amazon’s first development centre outside of the US.

Silicon Gorge A University of the West of England paper has argued that the area formed by the triangle of Bristol, Gloucester and Swindon is Europe’s fourth biggest technology cluster. It benefits from a proliferation of highly-regarded universities locally and several corporate finance boutiques have set up shop in the area. Well-known technology businesses in the region include HP Labs and Imagination Technologies.

Cwm Silicon The area to the west of Newport in South Wales is still home to a small number of technology businesses, though ambitious development plans first outlined a decade ago have yet to be realised. Nevertheless, initiatives such as the Welsh Innovation Centre for Enterprise are working hard to put the area on the map for technology investors, with 40 new companies winning its support in the past year alone.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.